This is a program on The Mathematical Laws of Morphology and Biomechanics, which includes a seminar series and working groups. The website of the program can be found here: https://sites.google.com/view/malamobi

Seminar Series

The seminar can be followed online using the following link: https://purdue.webex.com/meet/aselvite

The first seminar will be given by Prof. Alain Goriely from Oxford University on Tuesday 14th September 2021 5pm BST (noon EDT) and will be on:

Title: Ten ways to model growth

Abstract: Growth is a generic term that describes processes in which the mass of a body changes over time. In biology, the problem of growth is fundamental to all aspects of life, with realizations as diverse as cell division, morphogenesis, development, maintenance, cancer, and aging. All life forms experience growth to some appreciable degree and one of the ultimate challenges of modern biology is to understand the role of the genetic code in transforming cells into fully mature organisms and explaining how these organisms manage to regulate shape and function through growth and remodeling. The mathematical problem of modelling growth consists in formulating these internal variations of mass and explore their consequences. In this talk, I will give a general overview of the problem of growth in biological systems and review different modelling approaches from simple discrete models to sophisticated continuous models and discuss their relative advantages.

Working Groups

As part of the program, we are organizing working groups on the topics of morphology and biomechanics. Each term we will concentrate on a specific topic, starting in Fall 2021 with Animal Locomotion. Everybody is welcome to participate in the activities of these Working Groups. Date and time of the meetings will be announced soon.

Participants are encouraged to give a presentation during our meetings on a topic of their interest related to the theme of the lectures. Ideally, participants will present a concrete problem that they want to collaborate on in a team, which will benefit from cross-disciplinary interactions. Interesting problems could come from biomechanics or morphology and need advanced mathematical or computational tools to be addressed.

Looking forward to seeing you at the meetings!

Best wishes,

The Organizers: Prof. Kathleen Lois Foster and Prof. Alessandro Maria Selvitella